I'm HALPING!


Part Twenty-Four: Dancing With Endbringers


[A/N: This chapter commissioned by Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


A No-Tell Motel on the Outskirts of Brockton Bay
Coil


Rifle case slung over his shoulder, Calvert strolled out of the motel admin area. Beside him shuffled Creep, still in his body bag. The latest phone message had said to be checked out at this time but hadn't given any further details.

"Hello, Mr. Calvert."

The voice was so unexpected that he didn't register the words for a second. When he did, he turned to see both Taylor Hebert and Zachary casually standing there. Looking at him. Seeing him.

Not for even a fraction of a second did he entertain the concept that the monster-killing firearm in the case would have the slightest chance of harming Zachary. Neither could he run away; they'd both been waiting for him, so this meeting was going to happen. Which left only acceptance of his fate, whatever that might be.

Zachary had been the one to speak, but Calvert didn't make the mistake of ignoring the girl. "Hello," he said, addressing both of them. "It's been a little while."

"It has," Taylor agreed. "Zachary tells me you've been busy. Thank you for your help with Sleeper, by the way."

He nodded to acknowledge her words. "He needed putting down. You were the ones who held him in place long enough to make that happen." Taking a deep breath, he turned to Zachary. "So, what happens now? Do I die?"

"You have committed many crimes, because you assumed nobody who was powerful enough to stop you cared enough to try." Zachary's tone was measured, lacking in any censure. "Better people than you have done worse things for the same reason. I am here to relieve you of your duties and your powers. Your life will be your own to do with as you will."

He wasn't prepared for the surge of disappointment when he heard the first part of Zachary's intentions. The second came almost as an anticlimax; still a wrench, but not unbearable. "You … you don't need me anymore?" His powers had led him into this situation; keeping them was not as high a priority as it may once have been.

Zachary smiled kindly at him. "You have been very useful. My sister has spoken highly of you as an effective tool with which to implement her ends. But where Taylor and I need to go, what we need to do, is above what you would call your 'pay grade'. Do you understand?"

Once upon a time, he would've been insulted by the implication that a teenage girl and a … whatever Zachary was, could handle any situation better than he could, with all his training and powers combined. He'd learned since then. He'd learned a lot.

"Your sister? The Simurgh?" He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he did. "She's the one who's been pulling my strings?"

"That's right," croaked Creep from beside him. "It was the most convenient way. Plus, it was amusing from time to time."

Calvert grimaced. "Yeah, I suppose I asked for that one. So, what happens to him?" He indicated the corpse. "Is he going to be found dead right here? He's done a lot to help me, and I'd rather he didn't just vanish."

"He was an evil person in life, but that does not matter now," Zachary said. "He will be found washed up on shore. His identity will never be solved. He will receive a proper burial, from people who have no idea who he used to be."

"I suppose that's good enough." Calvert turned to look at Creep. "It's been interesting. See you around."

"Right back at you." Creep shuffled off, still holding up the body-bag like he was competing in the world's most macabre sack race. Calvert watched him get into a taxi; the vehicle drove off without the driver showing the slightest indication that he knew his passenger was a cadaver.

"Okay, I'm ready." Calvert leaned the rifle case against a convenient pillar. "I'm guessing I won't be needing that, either."

"You are correct." Zachary reached out as though to shake hands.

Calvert briefly considered trying to make a run for it, then laughed at himself. How far would I get? Wherever I tried to go, he would be there first. Steeling himself, he clasped the Endbringer's hand.

It was an odd feeling, like having the inside of his skull scraped out. Since gaining his powers, he'd depended on them almost every day of his life. They were how he'd made his money, and how he'd built his criminal enterprise. And now, with minimal fanfare, they were being taken from him.

He blinked, and it was done. Zachary was turning something over and over in his hands, until he finally revealed it to be an ornate wristwatch. Carefully, the teen strapped it onto his wrist.

"And that's it?" asked Calvert. "That's all?"

"That's all," Taylor said bluntly. "Don't go doing anything that would get our attention, and you'll be okay."

"Understood." Calvert turned and walked away from them. The rifle case was no longer leaning where he'd left it, but that was fine. It hadn't been stolen, because no thief in existence could get past that terrifyingly powerful young man. If he had to guess, it was back with its original owner.

As the saying went, this was the first day of the rest of his life. It wasn't going to be a very exciting life, but he'd had enough excitement for two lifetimes and change.

Right now, he decided, he wanted a drink. Or maybe two drinks. Creep would need a wake, after all.


Taylor


I watched Calvert walk away, heading for the taxi stand, and took Zachary's arm. "So, what's going to happen to him? Any more plans in his direction?"

"I have no plans whatsoever for him," Zachary replied. "He has served his purpose. He will have access to his PRT bank account, but not the money accumulated from his criminal endeavours. What he makes of his life is up to him."

"Okay." I put the ex-villain from my mind to admire Zach's new watch. "Very pretty. Where are we going next?"

"Thank you. I believe our next destination is to be Philadelphia, and several related locations. You are going to enjoy this, Taylor. We are going to help people."

"Oh, good." Even though Calvert had been a villain, retiring him and taking his powers had been a tiny bit depressing. "I'm definitely down for that. Are we running, jumping or teleporting?"

He smiled at me. "You like it when we jump, so we shall jump."

"Woo hoo!"


Parahuman Asylum East, Philadelphia
Doctor Jeremy Clarkson


Jeremy lowered his glasses and peered at his visitors over the top of them. "Excuse me? You're here to do what again?"

"We are here to cure your patients of the parahuman abilities that ail them," the young man replied earnestly. "I believe this will make treatment of their purely mental problems considerably easier."

"Well, it would," admitted Jeremy. "But how do you intend to do that? Even the most powerful Trumps can only turn off powers for a short time, and they usually require specific circumstances. The only cape I know of who can simply take powers away from someone is …" His voice trailed off, not wanting to say the name.

"Glaistig Uaine? The Faerie Queen?" The girl shrugged. "She's not a danger anymore. Zach and I saw to that."

"Oh." Jeremy didn't know why he believed this, but he did. "I … see. So, what do you need to do? Some of the inmates are dangerous if we're not wearing special equipment."

"They will not be." The boy—Zach—spoke with authority. "Walk with us, please."

And so, Jeremy found himself accompanying the boy and the girl through the asylum. No matter that it was outside visiting hours, or that neither of them had the slightest vestige of authority to be there; they were walking through, and that was all there was to it.

At each door, Zach would stop and tilt his head as though listening. Occasionally, it seemed as though a wispy something was floating about him, but Jeremy dismissed it as a trick of the light. He wanted it to be a trick of the light, as the alternative was much scarier.

There were no known Trumps outside the Birdcage capable of removing powers, because any such cape would find a target painted on their back. And this boy was right here, and Jeremy was in the same building as him. He just wanted them to finish their business and be gone, so he'd be outside the splash radius when the inevitable lynch mob of capes caught up with them.

Finally, they passed by the last cell. The teenagers turned to look at Jeremy, and the boy nodded. "Thank you for your time," he said. "And do not worry. You are safe. There is no lynch mob chasing me."

Wait, what the hell? Jeremy opened his mouth to ask how the kid knew the exact damn phrase he'd been thinking, then closed it again. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Don't wanna know.

The girl grinned. "That's probably wise. Bye, now." She took her male companion's arm in hers, offered Jeremy a tiny fingertip wave … and they both vanished, as though they'd never existed.

Grumbling about smartass Thinkers and Movers, he wandered back through the asylum, intending to head back to the office and pour himself a stiff drink from the bottle he kept hidden in the bookcase. But then he heard a voice as he was passing one particular cell. "Hello? Is anyone out there?"

His sense of duty took over, and he went to the intercom in question. "Hello, Sveta? It's Doctor Clarkson. Are you alright?" The question was more or less a gimme; Garrotte's body had proven itself to be insanely durable. But sometimes she needed reassurance.

"I … I think so?" There was a nervous giggle. "But … can someone bring me clothes? I'm kind of chilly in here."

He blinked. Clothes? Since when does a mass of tentacles wear clothing?

When he found out the answer to that question, he really needed a drink.


Taylor


Zach and I sat atop Washington's head and looked down at the Mount Rushmore viewing area while we ate our midnight picnic lunch. I had a slice of lasagna saved over from dinner, along with an apple and a large juice box. Despite both of us being fully aware that Zach had no need to eat, he was consuming a two-foot sub sandwich comprised of lettuce, ham, turkey and several sauces, with every evidence of enjoyment.

"So, that's the asylums cleared out," I observed, then let out a thoroughly unladylike belch. "You were right. That was really nice of you. I wonder how many of those people were there just because of problematic powers."

Zach politely took the time to chew and swallow his most recent bite before answering. "Most of them were incarcerated because their powers were dangerous or uncontrollable," he confirmed. "There were a few who had other problems over and above those, but as I told Doctor Clarkson, those will be much easier to treat now. Especially since their powers were sabotaging their recoveries."

"Huh. That's good to hear." I smiled at him, then finished off my juice box. "Where are we going next?"

Unusually for him, he paused to think about his response. "I am not certain that where I need to go is a good place for you. It is likely to be more dangerous, relatively speaking."

I raised my eyebrows. "Really? More dangerous than taking down Moord Nag, or facing Sleeper? How about when we goaded the Three Blasphemies into blowing up each other, and the top of the Eiffel Tower at the same time? Do you really want to pull the 'it's too dangerous' card on me now? And anyway, whatever happened to not letting me out of your sight in case someone got to me?"

It was perhaps the first time I'd seen Zach really taken aback. Any pauses up to this point had been mainly theatrical in nature; with the speed he could move and react, he had to take the time to masquerade as human in order to seem 'normal.' But now he stopped and just looked at me, as though I'd presented him with an insoluble problem.

"I am sorry, Taylor," he said at last. "I have done you a grave disservice. I allowed my concern for your well-being to override my understanding that you are quite capable of protecting yourself with the powers I have gifted to you."

I waited, but it seemed he'd finished what he was saying for the moment. So I nodded. "I can understand that impulse, and I appreciate it. You've done nothing but protect me since we met, and I appreciate that, too." Lifting my hand, I placed it on his cheek. "In that time, you've done more for me, more for my mental and physical well-being, anyone else in the world. I trust you to have my best interests at heart, Zach. Can you trust me not to be stupid, in return?"

"I can trust you, Taylor," he said immediately. "I do trust you. As I said, I am sorry for underestimating you, and I will not do it again."

"Good." I pulled up my knees and wrapped my arms around them, then rested my chin on top and looked over them at him. "So, spill. Where are you going that's so dangerous?"

"My next destination is China," he said immediately. "The CUI has a large collection of military-trained parahumans, some of whom have very useful powers. My intent is to goad them into attacking me so that I may collect their powers, both defanging the regional threat and adding to my collection at the same time."

"Bold plan," I acknowledged. "Just one question: do you know for a fact you can face them all off, or are you going to assume you can just because you've beat up on a few hometown capes?"

He looked uncomfortable. "My oldest brother attacked Jinzhou back before you were born, and the CUI refused outside aid. The Yàngbǎn faced him on their own, and were thoroughly demolished. The city was devastated, even worse than normally happened when he attacked. He says he felt a little bad about it afterward."

"And because of that, you're assuming you can solo them all now?" I rolled my eyes. "Zach, it's been more than fifteen years since then! They've had that time to replenish their numbers and ramp up their training. Also, you told me yourself the big guy is stronger than you, and a lot tougher. And he does a lot more ranged and area effect damage than you do."

"That is all true, Taylor, but I also do not wish to expose you to that level of danger." He looked unhappy, which was also a rare expression for him.

"And I don't want you facing that level of danger alone!" I shouted back. Taking a deep breath, I moderated my tone. "You're gathering all these powers for a really good reason, right?"

"Yes, Taylor, I am," he admitted. "It is all for the ultimate reason of keeping you safe and happy."

"Well, sometimes you're just going to have to compromise," I said. "If you're taken down and beaten while you're over there and you lose all the extra powers, is it going to help keep me safe and happy?"

"My brothers and sister would come to my aid …" he said uncertainly.

"Yeah, and sure, they might even rescue you," I said. "But it'll cause a ton of bad publicity. Do you want word getting out that all three known Endbringers attacked China to save you, personally? Because the people running China right now, the Emperor and the rest of them? They'd spread it far and wide that you're associated with the Endbringers. But two teenagers beating up their national cape team? They'd bury that hard, because everyone would laugh at them forever."

He looked thoughtful. "I am not sure. It still sounds very dangerous to me."

"Ask your sister." I spread my hands. "If anyone knows, she would." I tried hard not to think about how weird it was to be urging my best friend to seek advice from the Simurgh. Or that he was the Simurgh's younger brother.

"That is a good idea. I will ask her." He paused for a moment, then frowned. "She agrees with you. I do not understand."

I shrugged. "She knows me. Probably better than I know myself, to be honest. I just don't want you biting off more than you can chew. But she knows I'll go the extra mile to make sure you get out in one piece."

"That is true." He stood up, then gave me a hand to get to my feet as well. "I am used to not needing assistance in what I am doing. My sister tells me that if I do not accept your offer, I will be an idiot and deserve everything I get."

"Well, when she's right, she's right." I slugged him gently on the shoulder, then zipped my jacket all the way to the top. "So, what's the plan?"

"I had not considered the need for a plan …" He paused when I raised my eyebrows meaningfully. "… but if you wish, I can formulate one now, with my sister's help."

"I do wish, yes." I started gathering up the picnic debris. No sense in littering the top of Washington's head, after all. "Let me know what it is when you finish putting it together."

"Yes, Taylor."


Beijing
Yàngbǎn Training Centre
Half an Hour Later


We teleported into the middle of a large flat paved area, between two groups of people. Each group, arrayed in a rectangular fashion, were dressed in flowing clothing with red accents on black. Across the other side of the training ground (for there was little else it could be) there was a large target board that showed signs of charring, searing and explosive damage. Someone shouted a phrase. I didn't understand it, but my glasses provided a helpful subtitle: The Twenty-Third Path. Everyone to our right moved at the same time, shifting from one pose to another. Hands were pointed forward with palms outward, and fire erupted from every hand. I watched as each blast converged on the board, adding significantly to the charring already there.

A moment later, someone on the left shouted a different phrase—The Eighteenth Path—and blue-white lasers ravaged the target board on that side. I was not at all sure how they were doing this; shooting fire from the hands wasn't exactly a common cape power, but lasers had to be even less so. Where were they getting all these capes with the same powers from, and what did the numbers have to do with it?

Someone else shouted something, and I had a bad feeling even before my glasses provided the translation: Intruders! Capture them! Both groups turned to face us, people within them calling out different numbered paths.

This was where I came in. I hurled the Idiot Ball into one of the groups, mentally commanding it to ricochet between all of them. At the same time, Butcher's danger sense flared and I grabbed Zach, jumping us ten feet to the right. Where we'd been standing, a series of force fields formed a globe, then an area of dead-black space formed within that. Zach reached out, grabbing strand after strand of power and pulling them to himself.

More commands were shouted, and I realised what was happening. Each cape in the formation had a number, and their powers were being shared among everyone. If someone shouted a numbered path, everyone used the powers belonging to the cape that number corresponded to. It was kind of a terrifying epiphany. Instead of facing twenty-plus capes, each with a different power, we were facing twenty-plus capes, each with all the powers of their comrades.

But they relied on spoken commands.

A flicker of thought tuned my earpiece to white noise, and I turned it to full volume. The hissing, crackling static boomed out over the training ground, echoing from the nearby walls; even if it didn't deafen everyone, it certainly made them unable to hear the commands. "Eleventy-fifth path!" I shouted, just to add more confusion. "Negative one path! Four hundred ninety-fifth path! Pi R squared path!"

Between the lack of central authority, the Idiot Ball bouncing back and forth almost too fast for the eye to see, and Zach's ongoing harvesting of powers, all cohesiveness was gone. I jumped Zach and myself around a few more times to avoid individual attacks, but they'd trained so hard to react as a single unit that it was difficult to for them to act individually. By the time the dust settled and the smoke cleared, they were all backing away from us. The few who kept trying to use powers found they were gone—either from the Idiot Ball or Zach's harvesting efforts—which didn't help morale in the slightest.

"Are we done yet?" I called out, confident Zach would hear me and understand.

"I will need a little more time." He actually sounded strained, which was impressive considering his previous feats where it came to collecting powers. "One of their parahumans is attempting to pull back his power. If we teleport away, I will lose my grip on it."

The Idiot Ball came back to my palm with a resounding smack. "Which direction?"

His only answer was a strained grunt as he hauled on a strand that stretched away into nothingness, but he pointed along the strand. Well, duh. Of course they'd be in that direction. I threw the ball, and it vanished into the distance.

This wasn't to say we were out of the woods. Zach and I had neutralised the capes where we were, but more were almost certainly on the way. And with Zach almost fully occupied harvesting a particularly stubborn powerset, it was up to me to defend us both.

Between the powers contained in my jacket and the glasses, I knew there were people around us, but keeping out of sight behind the stone walls. That was fine; I didn't have to be able to see them to affect them. But I didn't want to open hostilities just yet, so I just picked up a rock from beside where I was standing and waited. Your move.

Their opening move was a row of riflemen who popped up from behind a wall and opened fire on us. I shielded Zach as best I could—they couldn't hurt him, but I didn't want him getting distracted at the wrong second—and teleported one foot to the side to create a humungous bloom of flame as visual cover. They kept shooting anyway, so I exerted my pain effect, giving each one a massive cramp in the hand just before he fired.

They stopped firing. Funny, that.

While they were figuring out what to do next, I turned to Zach. "How long to go? They're getting very pushy, here."

"I will be just another moment or so, Taylor." His jaw was set like iron. "This power is likely to be very useful to me."

"Okay, then." If Zach needed another moment or so, he would get another moment or so. He'd been my rock of support since I met him; it was time for me to return the favour.

My glasses gave me warning of the next incoming attack; an odd ripple-effect racing across the parade-ground toward us. I probably wouldn't have noticed it, or understood its significance, until it was far too late. As it was, they flared with a danger signal, highlighting it with red. Acting on instinct, I froze the ground we were standing on with the Gray Boy effect, as far out as it would go.

A text label sprang up in my glasses, with an arrow pointing at the ripple. Power effect of Tōng Líng Tǎ AKA 'Ziggurat'. Earth and stone control.

There was a tremendous, if almost subsonic, crunch as the ripple encountered the Gray Boy effect and split to go around it. In its wake, the surface of the training ground began to grow walls and pillars upward. Seconds later, we were surrounded, hemmed in. The sky briefly became a blue circle, far above; then it was gone, plunging us into darkness.

Not that a mere lack of light bothered me, and Zach even less so. I froze the walls around us, just in case Ziggurat wanted to try something tricky like slamming us with a million tons of rock from either side. This probably wouldn't hurt Zach, but it might disturb his concentration.

It seemed I'd been on the money. There was more rumbling from within the mass of rock that surrounded us. I looked up to see the slab that had closed us off from the light now descending at speed, like God's own runaway freight elevator. Ziggurat was probably unhappy that I'd denied her access to some of her precious rock, and now she wanted to step on us or something.

I might even have been apologetic about it, except that I wasn't.

When the down-rushing slab got close enough for me to affect, I Gray-Boy'd it as well, sealing us into a rectangular box and (I suspected) making life outside very exciting as the thousands of tons of rock descending at airliner speeds came to an abrupt and uncompromising halt. It would've been like a full-on meteorite strike, with Zach and me literally the only ones not affected by the devastation.

"Ah," Zach said suddenly. "That makes things much easier. Your ball has reached its target. He moved several times before it could reach him. I suspect he was being assisted by a teleporter." He looked around at our ad hoc bunker. "This is interesting. I presume you are protecting us from an attack?"

"Yeah," I said. "Ziggurat, apparently. Area effect Shaker, messes with the landscape."

"I see." Zach spoke over his shoulder as he gathered in the latest power he had harvested. "You were correct about my need for assistance. Thank you."

A moment later, the Idiot Ball returned, dropping into my hand as if glad to be home. "You're welcome," I said to Zach. "Did you want her power as well?"

"It is not one that I require." Zach took my other hand. "We are finished here. The Yàngbǎn still possesses a number of powerful capes, but they are no longer the international threat that they were before. I have taken the powers of those they called Null and One, as well as several other very useful ones from the soldiers that were undergoing training."

I decided not to ask what powers Null and One had lost to Zach; the sheer lack of descriptiveness, compared to Ziggurat's name, was creepy in its absence. "Okay, then. Whose ass are we going to kick now?"

Zach beamed at me. "I admire your enthusiasm, Taylor. I do not believe there will be any need to kick any asses where we are going, but it is always a good idea to be prepared." He looked around at the box of force we were currently contained in. "I do not believe we can jump or run at the moment, so do you think you can teleport us to this location?" As he asked the question, a latitude and longitude popped up on my glasses.

I nodded. "Sure. Should I leave the Gray Boy effect up once we leave?"

A mischievous smile crossed Zach's face. "Give it ten seconds after we leave, then let it lapse. My sister says she will teleport in after we have left, so that when she bursts out of the rocky prison, it will come as a complete surprise to Ziggurat."

"I just bet it will." I triggered the teleport and we ended up standing on a beach, looking out at the ocean. The sun was rising to our left, half over ocean and half over land. It was gorgeous.

Seabirds squawked as the steady breeze blew into our faces. I blinked, and suddenly my glasses were showing the training ground back in the CUI, with a huge blocky mound of rock covering where we'd been. I allowed the Gray Boy effect to lapse.

For a long, long moment, nothing happened. The capes—with their uniform-like costumes and the fact that some of them were flying, they could be nothing else—clustered around, power effects shimmering around their hands. But this time, each had their own power effect; nobody was borrowing someone else's.

And then, in the looming mound of rock, a crack appeared. I saw the earth itself shudder, and a few tiles fell off nearby buildings. The crack repaired itself, and then half a dozen more appeared.

Some of the capes came closer, firing their powers at the mound. Force fields and bands of metal and sheets of ice appeared over it, trying to hold it in one piece.

With a sound like thunder, it cracked all the way in half, through the metal and the ice and the force fields. The capes were flung away by the sheer concussion.

Abruptly, the force fields vanished. The ice melted. One by one, the bands of metal broke their bonds and peeled away, as though someone was trying to get in rather than out.

Half the mass of rock visibly moved outward, literal millions of tons of mass simply shoved aside as though it were a recalcitrant door. It began to crumble, along with the replacement pillars and walls that grew from the earth to reinforce the original structure. No matter how thick or strong they were, cracks developed and they crumbled uselessly to gravel.

And then the two halves fell apart altogether; a tremendous dust cloud billowed upward and outward. As it subsided, the capes surged inward again, evidently intent on subduing the intruders. Where Ziggurat had failed with just one power, the many would succeed with their multitude.

Or that was apparently the idea, at least.

Between one instant and the next, the dust cloud vanished altogether. There, in the centre of the ring of vengeful capes, hovered the Simurgh; wings spread and a victorious smile upon her face. As they stared, she opened her mouth and began to sing.

But what she sang, nobody expected, not even me; and I'd seen about everything I thought possible from the Endbringers. It wasn't a mindworm, as she'd used in times past. This time, she actually voiced audible words.

First, she started with the dance movements, then the song came spilling out. "We're no strangers to love/ You know the rules and so do I …"

I blinked. Wait a minute. I know that song. A grin began to work its way across my face. "Holy shit, she's totally going to …"

"Yes, Taylor." Zach's smile was as wide as mine. "We have been studying humour. She and I agree that this is a most appropriate prank."

The Simurgh began to belt the chorus out over Beijing. "Never gonna give you up …" but then I was laughing too hard to listen. By the time the song finished, I was on my knees in the sand with tears running down my face. I had no idea what the CUI capes thought about being Rick-rolled, but to me it was the funniest thing in the world.

A few minutes later, I'd recovered enough to stand up again, brushing the sand from my knees. My face was still flushed and red, but at least I'd gotten over most of the giggles. "Your sister," I declared, "is the biggest troll who never lived under a bridge."

He beamed at me. "She says to thank you for the compliment."

"Tell her she's welcome. So, why are we here again? And where is here, exactly?" As I asked the second question, my glasses popped up the wireframe globe again, showing a spot under the shoulder of Africa. Zooming in, it displayed a name: Republic of Côte d'Ivoire. "Okay, I know where we are, but not the why."

Zach let my words hang in the air for a moment before he answered. "We are here for the final pieces to the puzzle, Taylor. Do you recall how Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown is actually Alexandria?"

I snorted with residual amusement. "It's not like I could exactly forget. Why?"

He appeared to be doing something with his hands; when he pulled them apart, I saw he was holding a leather patch. Reaching out, he placed this on the shoulder of my jacket and smoothed it down. It stayed there when he left it, of course. Because this was Zach, and my jacket wasn't exactly a normal jacket. "We are going to meet her in her third role, and this is the upgrade that will allow you to do it. I borrowed the power improvement from Father."

I twisted my neck to peer down at the patch. The detail was impressive, showing a medieval-style door set into a stone doorway, partly open to show darkness beyond. My glasses threw up a notification:

Power upgrade complete. Teleportation is now interdimensional.

"Interdimensional?" I struggled with the concept. "Why are we going interdimensional?"

"Because that is where our destination is, Taylor." He snapped his fingers, and information scrolled up the lenses of my glasses. "More answers await you. Are you ready to find out the real truths behind the world?"

That question was what decided me. My family and I had been screwed over in one fashion and another for the last few years. If there were answers to be had for exactly why this was happening, I wanted to find them out. And maybe, I might get to punch someone in the nose for it.

I gave him a toothy grin and grasped his hand tightly. "I was born ready." Focusing on the coordinates—which included an odd extra that I hadn't seen before—I triggered the teleport.

Unsurprisingly, it was a weird sensation, kind of like twisting in a direction that didn't exist, but we still went somewhere. Specifically, to a white corridor in a building I was sure I'd never seen before. I looked around, noting how the sand falling from my shoes was the only dirt in the pristine white hallway. There wasn't even any dust that I could see. How often did they sweep this area?

"Well done, Taylor," Zach said happily. "We are here."

"And where is here?" I looked around again, merely reinforcing my initial impression that whoever had built this place had over-ordered on 'hallways, extra white'.

He started forward; I kept pace with him. "This is the nerve centre of the group that has been deluding themselves into thinking they have control over how soon the apocalypse will come."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait." I scissored my hands from side to side. "You're saying the Illuminati exists? And that Rebecca Costa-Brown is part of it? And she's been running the world from behind the scenes?"

"In a very general manner of speaking, yes," he said. "They call themselves Cauldron, not the Illuminati, but the rest is broadly true. And yes, they have had quite an effect on world events up until now, although not as much as they like to think."

"But how—" I stopped as my glasses flared a low-level danger warning. Someone was about to attack me, though I wouldn't be more than mildly inconvenienced. Still, having people just attacking me for no good reason hadn't made me happy when it was Emma and friends, and I just plain wasn't in favour of it.

Not even for a moment did I think Zach was going to be endangered. Don't be silly.

I'd had just enough time to look around and brace myself when a hurricane of wind blasted through the corridor, spinning me around and then pinning me against the wall. Something tried to suck the air from my lungs. My arms and legs were held immobile, preventing me from moving.

I opened my fingers, releasing the Idiot Ball. Seek.

There was another inrush of air, and I was released. Able to breathe again, I looked down at where a woman in her late thirties was half-kneeling on the floor, staring down at her hands which were pressed to the pristine whiteness. She wore a simple off-white shift, reminiscent of a hospital gown. The Idiot Ball bounced once off the floor, and back into my hand.

The woman looked up at me, her long brown hair draped over her face. "What?" Her voice was a bare whisper, as though she hadn't spoken for some time. "How did you … what did you do to me?"

"You attacked me, so I neutralised your power," I said simply. "Who are you?"

Slowly, she stood, steadying herself against the wall, as though even that simple act was foreign to her. "I am … they call me the Custodian."

Zach held his hand out for the Idiot Ball, so I tossed it to him before turning my attention back to the woman. "How long have you been here?" My glasses filled in the final bits of information. "How long have you been made of … air?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. It's hard to keep track of time. I just found it easier to stay useful. To carry out the aims of Cauldron."

"Well, that's over and done, now." I gestured to myself and Zach. "I don't know the full details of the plan yet, but I suspect we're here to change things around. Where are you from, anyway?"

"I … it's been so long." She blinked and rubbed her forehead. "I remember home, but I don't know where it is from here."

Zach laid his hand on her forehead. "I can see your world," he announced. "You can go back there, or you can go to Bet. Be aware; your friends and family will have forgotten you, or think you are dead. I can give you possessions and we can send you back, but I cannot change that aspect."

"I'll go back anyway," she said. "I've heard stories about how bad Earth Bet is getting."

"We're working on that," I protested. "The Endbringers don't attack anymore, and the S-class threats are basically gone."

"I still know my Earth better," she said. "Can you send me back now?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Don't you want to say goodbye to anyone?"

Zach snapped his fingers, and her shift became comfortable clothing, layered in ways I hadn't seen before, all covered by a modest hooded cloak. "Oh!" she said, startled. "How did you know what I needed to be wearing?"

"He asked his sister," I guessed. Well, it wasn't that much of a guess. "So, no goodbyes?"

"Who would I say goodbye to?" she asked. "They all know me as the Custodian, not as who I used to be." A grimace crossed her face. "And I suspect the few who remember me as I was wouldn't care enough to wish me well. I was a useful servant for them, but even if they did have kindly feelings toward me, you've taken my powers, making me useless to them."

Zach bounced the Idiot Ball on the floor so it went straight to my hand. Then he held up a delicately-carved wooden bangle with a wavy blue and white pattern inlaid into it. "Here are your powers," he said. "You will be able to control the change. But I advise you not to stay, all the same. This facility will soon be shutting down."

I blinked; I'd figured he would be making changes, sure. But shutting the place down altogether? I didn't even know what they did here, except for secretly pretending to rule the world. "Uh … Alexandria won't be happy," I ventured.

"I do not care about the Chief Director's happiness," he said blandly. "I do care about yours. Once you find out how they do business here, you will also be happy about shutting it down."

Well, that was laid out as plainly as it could be. "Okay, then. How are we getting … uh, what was your name again, sorry? I'm Taylor."

"It has been quite some time," the woman who used to be the Custodian said. "I'm Deborah." She looked at Zach quizzically. "Who are you? I couldn't affect you with my powers at all."

"That's Zachary," I explained helpfully. "He's an Endbringer."

Her eyes widened as she stared at him, then back at me. "And you travel with him? Why aren't you terrified?"

I smiled. "If you'd seen one tenth of what he's done for me, you wouldn't be asking that question."

"Others are coming," Zach said. "If you would like to take Deborah home, I will wait for you." As he spoke, the glasses popped up a new series of coordinates for me, including the same extra non-direction that the last one had featured. "And this is for you." He handed Deborah the bangle.

She shook her head as she looked between us again. "I don't understand this at all. How have you made my power into an object?"

"It's one of his little tricks," I explained cheerfully as I took her hand. "He's got a few of them. You might be wondering why you're taking this so calmly. That's another one. Ready to go?"

She eyed Zach extra dubiously as she took in my words. He beamed back at her, entirely unfazed by her suspicious demeanour. Then she looked at me. "Yes, I'm ready to go."

I triggered the teleport, dropping us into a quiet side-street in what looked like a populous city. Men and women, dressed similarly to Deborah, bustled back and forth across the entrance to the street, but nobody seemed to have noticed our arrival.

"Well," I said. "Good luck."

"Thank you." She looked me up and down. "As immodest as your clothing is, I do like your jacket."

"Everyone says that—well, not the immodest bit, but about the jacket—but thanks anyway. Have a good life." I raised my hand in a wave, then teleported back to the white corridor.

"It went well?" asked Zach.

"Sure." I shrugged, then gestured at myself. "She called my clothing immodest. I'm covered up. What's that about?"

"Where she is from, they have been in an Abrahamic theocracy since the fifteen hundreds," he explained. "Women there are supposed to be more domestic than adventurous. Blue jeans and leather jackets are not considered modest."

"Well, excuse me for being a liberated woman in the twenty-first century," I snarked. "So, where do we go next?"

"Hey!" The voice came from down the corridor a ways. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

No particular danger signal accompanied it, so I turned casually to look. A blond man in a business suit stood there, wearing glasses and a pocket protector. He also held a pistol, down at his side.

"Hello, Mr. Kurt Wynn," Zach said cheerfully. "Briefly a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, once known as Harbinger, now known as the Number Man. You possess an extreme awareness of your body and the space around it, do you not?"

I had to give the guy credit; he didn't waste time asking Zach how he knew all that stuff. He raised the pistol and pointed it at us. My sense of danger only blipped a little bit; considering how durable the jacket's powers made me, that was no particular surprise.

"You're coming with me," he said grimly. "You're going to be explaining yourself to—"

My glasses flared with danger, just as a portal opened right in front of me, just large enough for a slim hand to reach through for the tab of my jacket. I went to step away, but another hand in the middle of my back prevented me from moving. However, Zach reacted even more quickly.

In a single blurred motion, he captured the hand reaching for my jacket, somehow pulled the portal all the way open, and yanked the woman on the other side through. The portal snapped shut when Zach let go of it … but he still had a trace from it.

"Hello," he said, beaming down at the woman, who was now staring up at him with real fear in her eyes. "It is nice to meet you at last, Contessa."


End of Part Twenty-Four


[A/N: The next chapter of I'm HALPING! will be the last! Woo!]